An American literary cult figure, Paul Bowles established his legacy with the novel The Sheltering Sky. An immediate sensation, it became a fixture in American letters. Bowles then returned his energies to the short story - the genre he preferred and soon mastered.Bowles' s short fiction is orchestral in composition and exacting in theme, marked by a unique, delicately spare style, and a dark, rich, exotic mood, by turns chilling, ironic, and wry.

Your Likes make Audible better!

Publisher's Summary

An American literary cult figure, Paul Bowles established his legacy with the novel The Sheltering Sky. An immediate sensation, it became a fixture in American letters. Bowles then returned his energies to the short story - the genre he preferred and soon mastered.

Bowles' s short fiction is orchestral in composition and exacting in theme, marked by a unique, delicately spare style and a dark, rich, exotic mood, by turns chilling, ironic, and wry.

In "Pastor Dowe at Tecaté", a Protestant missionary is sent to the far reaches of the globe - a place, he discovers, where his God has no power. In "Call at Corazón", an American husband abandons his alcoholic wife on their honeymoon in a South American jungle. In "Allal", a boy's drug-induced metamorphosis into a deadly serpent leads to his violent death, but not before he feels the "joy" of sinking his fangs into his human prey.

Here too are his most famous works, such as "The Delicate Prey", a grimly satisfying tale of vengeance, and "A Distant Episode", which Tennessee Williams proclaimed "a masterpiece of short fiction".

Though shocking, Bowles's stories possess a symmetry between beauty and terror that is haunting and ultimately moral. Like Poe, Bowles had an instinctive adeptness with the nightmare vision. Like Hemingway, Bowles is famously unsentimental, a skilled craftsman of crystalline prose.

I actually have already listened to some of the stories over again. I cannot add too much to all that has been said about Bowles, but this is a great survey, and my introduction, really, to him as a short story writer. I could not take my headphones off!

What did you like best about this story?

It was a whalloping dose of humor, misery and careful observation. I dreamt differently after hearing this collection.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

The narrator was a whole repertory company! WHAT a treat! It really added texture and variety to the stories and the selection of voices to stories was made by a very astute person, indeed.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There is a harrowing story - just awful - that can be described, at first, as picaresque, about a naive English philologist embarking on field work in Africa and it all turning very very unexpected, indeed, within 12 hours of arriving. I could barely stand the story, but will never forget a moment of it.

I enjoyed the later stories much more than the early ones. My complaint with the early stories is that they would often start getting good and holding my interest when they would just end. I know that they are "literary" and not "plot-driven," but I found that so ANNOYING.

I have loved Paul Bowles' short stories for years...from his North African stories to his New York City ones. I have read a lot of his stories before, but it seems I missed a lot. A lot of the stories remind me of Albert Camus' The Stranger, as they seem quite existential and lonely in a way. I wouldn't recommend these stories if you are looking for an uplifting tale, as most of them are a bit on the sad side. On the other hand, they are extremely well written, and all of them carry the existential feeling Bowles provides in most of his stories written about North African places and situations. Most of the stories deal with relationships of one kind of another...love relationships either troubled, one sided, impossible (due to cultural differences, age, etc.). All of the stories carry a very vivid visual descriptive aspect which is wildly pleasing to my tastes. The closest comparison in other writers that I could make would be Denton Welch. Welch's short stories carry even more visual description...so much so that his stories are almost "juicy."

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The different narrators for each story are a really excellent touch. Some of them are obviously better than others, but it gives the semblance of uniqueness for each story.

If you could rename The Stories of Paul Bowles, what would you call it?

I consider myself fairly well read. But I could not understand almost all of these stories. Of the 100 or so books I've listened to, I've only not finished 2. This is one of them.
If you don't like stories that have don't have an actual ending- don't listen to this book.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.